Trash talking in Mount Pocono: Is it a tax or not?

Bids for municipal trash hauling for Mount Pocono residents came in lower than expected, and now borough officials have a choice to make — to haul or not to haul?

MICHAEL SADOWSKI

Bids for municipal trash hauling for Mount Pocono residents came in lower than expected, and now borough officials have a choice to make — to haul or not to haul?

Either way, Mount Pocono residents can expect to pay more for municipal services in 2013.

Garbage bills in the borough are expected to rise about $50 and property taxes will stay the same, according to preliminary estimates.

That's enough for some residents to say the new prices look mysteriously like a tax.

"How is that not a tax?" John Davis of Knox Road asked at a council meeting. "It's a tax."

Borough residents paid about $153 this year in garbage fees, but that doesn't entirely cover the cost of trash hauling. The borough currently uses property tax revenue to cover the remaining cost.

The cost for garbage collection in 2013 is expected to be about $200, paid for through direct billing. However, the borough's preliminary budget doesn't include a tax cut, even though it no longer includes any aspect of trash hauling.

That leaves borough residents paying the same in property tax, but more for garbage collection. Borough officials said the money saved from removing garbage collection from the general fund budget likely will be used to pave borough roads.

"It's been four years since we've done any paving," Council President John Finnerty said. "If we wait any longer, we won't ever catch up."

Auditors told the borough this year it could not pay for garbage hauling through both taxes and billing, it had to choose one or the other.

To include garbage collection in property taxes would mean a likely property tax hike, a dicey situation in Mount Pocono. Any increase would almost assuredly send the borough over the state-mandated millage rate.

It's at 29.5 mills in the preliminary budget introduced Monday, and the state does not allow more than 30 mills of property tax. It would have to petition the courts for permission to go over 30 mills.

That leaves the borough with only the option of billing residents individually.

The bids for the borough's 2013 garbage pick-up came in at around $270,000 from current hauler J.P. Mascaro & Sons of Audobon, and about $266,000 from Kreitzer Sanitation of Orwigsburg.

Mascaro, however, has debated parts of Kreitzer's bid, and the borough is investigating.

The bids were expected to come in at around $315,000, borough officials said, since that is the current cost.

The borough has scheduled a meeting at 7 p.m. Monday to decide on the bids. It also could decide to reject both bids and have residents arrange their own trash hauling in 2013.